Prince of Persia (xbox 360)

Prince of Persia

Format played: xbox 360
Players: 1
Difficulty: Medium
Gametime needed: Around 12 hours. Double that if you want all the achievements/trophies available.





Prince of Persia - a title that has been around as long as the early games consoles. I had an early PoP game for my Megadrive back in the early 1990's - the general idea remains the same - some platforms to cross, some puzzles to solve, some bad guys to kill. However, times have changed. Whereas the Prince once looked like this:

He now looks something a bit more like this:


I guess that's what they call 'progress'.... And yes - that is an actual in-game screenshot. It looks fantastic.

Anyway - onto the 2009 version of the game Basically, it's your standard 'leap from wall to wall' platformer with a nice bit of combat thrown in. Your character - The Prince (I don't quite 'get' why it's still called Prince of Persia. Sure, the main dude is called the Prince but otherwise it's a bit of a headscratcher. Maybe I haven't reached the point in the game when all is revealed) is helped by a mysterious Princess called Elika who has some pretty nifty moves. Elika is with you right from the start and is your constant companion - difficult jumps can be solved by pressing 'Y' midjump, and she has her own individual combat style. So the Prince won't get lonely. You won't die in PoP - if you incorrectly judge a jump, Elika's hand plucks you out of the air and returns you to your last safe, sturdy bit of ground.

Basic plot - some evil, dark demonic-style bloke has arisen from the depths and the whole world - once sumptuous and verdent is now covered in horrible, dark, hellish matter called 'corruption'. Elika is a sort of tree-hugger who can heal all the world one by one (once healed they are called 'Fertile Grounds'). The idea is to turn all the separate worlds back into Fertile Grounds. Each world has a boss character waiting, kill them and Elika can do her stuff. Once she's healed the worlds, there are 45 energy balls called light seeds. Collect enough of them, and you can unlock new worlds. Easy.

But be prepared to spend a LOT of time either scaling walls, wall-running, jumping to ledges and posts etc. But that's not a bad thing, because it's bloody good fun. The prince is a nimble little bugger, his moves seamlessly blend together and you look extremely cool to any observer as you pull off grab after slide after leap after roll etc. The levels are pretty big too, so it makes for some excellent little trips from one side of a world to another. And it's all seamless - unless you teleport from one world to another, there are no loading screens and I'm yet to experience any slow down in between worlds as a result.

Onto the good - it looks absolutely incredible. Many people don't like cel-shaded graphics but it works a treat here. Some of the best visuals I've seen in a game. Corrupted worlds looks spooky, empty but atmospheric, and healed world are marvellously coloured, fresh and full of life. The characters look excellent too, with superb animation throughout. The visuals are probably the stongest part of the game.

The combat is quite satisfying, though I do think it's a bit of a button basher. You don't actually partake in as much combat as you'd expect, but put together a few combos and it can become quite fun.

The Prince regretted offering to cut Daisy's toenails

Now the bad - the main character is probably THE most annoying character I've ever played as in a video game. Quite why Ubisoft saw the need to cast a stereotypical yank as the prince I don't know. His dialogue is shockingly bad, corny, and just plain irritating. Elika isn't quite as bad, but she too grates after a while. Unfortunately, as 80% of the game is just the two of them traversing the landscape, it's inescapable. And you end up sometimes hoping the bad guys win just to shut him up. But of course - you can't die with Elika around (it's not like it makes it that easy - if you're fighting a bad guy and he knocks you about enough for Elika to intervene, the enemy just recuperates some energy. It works quite well actually).

Elika

Overall, I was impressed (especially for a tenner). My new TV makes it look bloody lovely on 720p, and leaping around is rather good fun once you get the basics right. There are many similarities between Prince of Persia and Assassins Creed (they're both made by Ubisoft so it's hardly a shock) and whilst I think AC is the better game, you could do a lot worse than PoP to enhance your game score and show off how amazing your 360/PS3 can look. Like it's middle-eastern-based cousin, Assassins Creed (which probably suit the title 'Prince of Persia more) repetition can and will set in. The formula of 'find world, traverse world, find boss of world, kill boss, heal world' is pretty much it. Luckily doing all that can be pretty good fun.

Ian's Score: 7.5